On half a dozen occasions at least, Julianne Moore
has given ample demonstration of her ability and
intelligence. Thus, she lent herself faithfully to the
increasingly pale and withdrawn figure for Todd
Haynes's Safe (1995), while staying in the memory
as the half-naked, very talkative, and fiery red
young woman for Robert Altman's Short Cuts
(93). Then there was the pom queen for Boogie
Nights (97, Paul Thomas Anderson), in which
drugs and natural kindness had led to a rosy, shiny
blur of warmth.

She was trained at the Boston Museum School
of Fine Arts, she has worked on stage, and won an
Emmy for As the World Turns. But she had the
looks and attitude that led her more naturally to
independent films (classic Hollywood complains
at her freckles; the same superficial complaint that stopped another great actress Isabelle Huppert from ever making it big there - just think but for the sake of a few spots what some great actors could have achieved!!), until late 1999, when she found
herself in two big lead roles—as the adulteress
who turns away in The End of the Affair (99, Neil
Jordan) and as the young wife in Magnolia (99,
Anderson). The former was disappointing. But the
latter was good—clearly, Moore had arrived as a
major figure.

She had little to do in The Ladies Man (00,
Reginald Hudlin), but after the short Not I (00,
Jordan), adapted from Beckett, she took over the
role of Clarice Starling and helped make Hannibal
(Ol, Ridley Scott) into a wistful romance. She was
wasted in Evolution (01, Ivan Reitman) and in
World Traveler (01, Freundlich); but she was
good again in The Shipping News (01, Lasse Hallstrom), and she was even better in The
Hours (02, Stephen Daldry).